Peoria aims to speed building-plan permits

Peoria plans to launch a pilot program for design professionals to self-certify their building plans as a way to expedite the city’s permitting process.

The idea is to cut down significantly on both time and money for developers.

Only permits for tenant improvements will be eligible for the pilot program. Those include changes by an owner to the interior of a commercial or industrial property to accommodate a tenant’s needs, such as putting in new walls, floor or ceiling coverings, or redesigning the interior of an existing building.

Design professionals like architects or engineers would become certified in Peoria’s building codes and then could self-certify that their building plans meet the requirements rather than go through the city’s normal plan review process.

Some City Council members said the program can help bring in new businesses, but others expressed concerns over whether public safety could be maintained under the program.

“We all have to achieve buildings that are sound and safe and that are up quickly,” Councilman Ron Aames said Tuesday during a study session. “I think we will attract more business here.”

The council during the study session directed staff to pursue the pilot program, which will come back to council members for a vote on Tuesday when they are asked to approve the $46,680for the program. That cost includes training for city inspection staff, contracted inspectors and plan-review employees while the city staff is trained, and to make necessary changes to the city’s computer permitting system and workflow.

The self-certification program puts the liability and burden of code compliance on the designer to meet building codes and Peoria’s standards, Economic Development Services Direct Scott Whyte said.

The program will start small with the tenant improvements so city officials better can control the results. Only permits for tenant improvements at non-residential buildings that are 15,000 square feet or less and two stories at most will be eligible. It excludes any buildings dealing with the manufacturing or storing of hazardous materials.

“What we don’t want to do is start a program that’s so broad that we have no ability to do it well,” Whyte told council members. “So start small, start focused, have success under the pilot program.”

Developers will have the choice to use the city’s normal permitting process or to self-certify. Officials expect about 3 percent of tenant-improvement permits to be done through the pilot program. Officials will conduct inspections during the building process and audit all the projects that were self-certified.

They will review the program after nine months with staff, clients, architects, designers and developers and then present it to council for re-evaluation and possible expansion. Whyte said they will measure the program’s success by examining the level of participation and audit results.

Councilwoman Cathy Carlat urged staff to ensure residents’ safety isn’t compromised by declining building standards for the sake of expediting the permitting process.

“I have a very, very low risk tolerance. I do not want there to be a safety issue,” she said. “If we decide to do this pilot program and we come back in (nine) months, I want to know exactly how we assured that our citizens are safe when they walk in every single building, no matter how it was permitted.”

City Manager Carl Swenson said that while the city wants to have great customer service, they never will sacrifice their duty to provide public safety in order to improve customer service.

The pilot program has a balance between an expedited process and maintaining life-safety requirements, Whyte said. Doing audits on all of the projects permitted through self-certification will allow city officials to ensure each building’s safety.

The final check is that city inspectors still must sign off on a building before it is occupied.

“The C of O, certificate of occupancy, is the backstop,” Whyte said. “We’re not going to issue it until we feel the life-safety issues are appropriate.”

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